“I have directed the city manager to expedite the appropriate steps to end the encampment as soon as possible with a safe resolution being absolutely critical to that,” Mayor Gregor Robertson said Saturday night.

Police said a woman in her 20s was found unresponsive inside a tent at the encampment at about 4:30 p.m. PT Saturday…

Protesters listening to the mayor’s announcement yelled their disagreement, and accused Robertson of using the woman’s death for political purposes.

“Shutting down the encampment will not alleviate the heroin epidemic that’s going on in this city,” one of the protesters said. “We need people to pay attention to this fact. We need funding, we need help.”